Philipp Putzer & Mischa Sanders

The Südtiroler Künstlerbund presents a solo exhibition of the winners of the 2022 residency at the Cité des Arts

Philipp Putzer & Mischa Sanders
The winners of the 2022 residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Philipp Putzer and Mischa Sanders, present at the Prisma Gallery of the Südtiroler Künstlerbund the results of their study stay in the French capital.

Through the Südtiroler Künstlerbund, the Cassa di Risparmio di Bolzano Foundation annually funds a residency for emerging artists in the heart of Paris, at the Cité des Arts overlooking the Seine. This year the residency was awarded for the fifth time and, according to Lisa Trockner, curator of the project, “the award has become one of the flagship initiatives of the Künstlerbund, a format that promotes young artists and their research projects by encouraging exchanges with experts in the field.” In close contact with the Parisian Cité management in 2022, the five jury members ultimately decided in favor of Philipp Putzer from Bruneck and his Dutch-born partner Mischa Sanders.

Putzer and Sanders convinced the jury with their research project on the territory. Among market stalls and antique dealers, they discover finds which, as objets trouvés, flow transformed into their artistic production.

Philipp Putzer, born in 1994, studied Sculpture at the Kunsthochschule Dresden, Germany. Mischa Sanders, the same age, first studied at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts in Besançon, France, but also graduated from the Dresden academy, where she met her future partner. In 2018, they jointly participated in an exchange at INSAAC in Abidjan and since then regularly stay in Ivory Coast where they are represented by OH Gallery. The two artists work both individually in sculpture and as an artistic duo. Their works often begin as performance and drawing, evolving into a final sculptural form.

In this their first solo exhibition organized in South Tyrol, titled Plâtre de Paris, they display works inspired by the city of Paris and its surroundings.

A multitude of sketches, drawings, found objects, and photographs flow, joined and transfigured, into a production of greater substance where shapes transform moving towards imagination and fantasy, becoming relics and finds of our time that recall ruins and architectural fragments. Architecture and individual historical building elements flow into their works, mainly made of concrete and synthetic materials. The concrete elements are cast in molds derived from old furnishings, other objects, or made from soft clay. The result are fragments characterized by cracks and ornamental joints that serve as memories of recollections, presented as organic-sculptural architectural elements. The structures are complemented by large-scale drawings that reveal connections between architecture and vegetation.

The exhibition at Prisma Gallery will open on March 17 at 7:00 PM and remain open until April 29, Tuesday to Friday from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and Saturday from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM.

Photo credit: Leonhard Angerer for the Südtiroler Künstlerbund